Thursday, May 1, 2014

Simple Fun at Whiting Lane

I just completed a wonderful two-day author visit at the lovely and fabulous Whiting Lane School!
I was very excited to read my new book TEH SIMPLES LOVE A PICNIC for the very first time and I had a brand spankin' new presentation called ALL ABOUT ILLUSTRATION in which I talk about a lot of different aspects that go into illustrating a book.

I think it's a pretty common misconception that writing and illustrating a picture book is easy. Most kids think it takes me an afternoon to write one. They might think it takes a little longer to make all the pictures, but they have no idea how much thought and preparation goes into each page.

I talked to them about choosing a style to illustrate in and showed them nine different styles I've used over the years. I talked to them about layout, character consistency, variety, clarity, and composition. Then I had some volunteer illustrators come up and help my compose an illustration of the Simples at their picnic.

When the presentation was over, we went back to the library and made a BIG MESS!

The project: Picnic Ants! And those naughty critters were stealing all kinds of food from the picnic.
Below we have ants stealing an orange, a carrot, a slice of watermelon, and a donut!

Everyone at Whiting Lane was so welcoming and enthusiastic! THANK YOU! Big shout out to Lee Gluck, the media specialist who hosted and organized the whole thing. You're the best, Lee!